^ On
a 31 May:2003Annular
eclipse of the sun of 3m37s, visible in Iceland and Greenland.2002 Pedro Barragán González and five members of his gang
are arrested outside Veracruz, Mexico, after a nine-month manhunt. They
are among the most vicious of Mexico's many kidnappers for ransom (police
being suspected of complicity), often mutilating their victims.2001
Microsoft holds over 100 lavish parties throughout the US to launch the
XP version of its Office software suite.

^1996 Netanyahu is elected
prime minister of Israel
Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu claims victory in Israel's election
for prime minister, defeating incumbent Shimon Peres by 0.9%. This is regarded
as a setback for the Middle East peace process. Peres, leader of the Labor
party, had become prime minister in 1995 after Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated
by a right-wing Jewish extremist. Netanyahu,
who promised to be tough on terrorism and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat,
was at forty-seven the youngest prime minister elected in the country’s
fifty-year history. Born in Tel Aviv in 1949, he served in the Israel Defense
Forces and during the 1980s was the Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations.
In 1988, he was elected to the Israeli parliament and served as deputy minister
of foreign affairs from 1988 to 1991. In 1993, he became the Likud leader,
and in 1996, Israel’s prime minister.
On 18 May 1999, after serving three years as prime minister, a stalled
peace process and epidemic political in-fighting within his cabinet led
to his electoral defeat by Labor challenger Ehud Barak. During his concession
speech that evening, Netanyahu also resigned as Likud party leader.

^1996 Attack on garment
industry sweatshops
Daytime television queen Kathie Lee Gifford leads the charge against dangerous
working conditions in the garment industry. Gifford teams with Labor Secretary
Robert Reich at a press conference designed to shed a spotlight on the proliferation
of low pay and foul conditions in numerous garment shops.
While Gifford's sudden transformation from chatty talk show host to activist
 inspired by the discovery that her line of Wal-Mart-based clothing
was partially produced in "sweatshops"  may have inspired some snickering,
Reich attempted to keep the focus on the facts. The Labor Secretary deemed
the sweatshops a "national shame" and noted that roughly half of the garment
factories in the US not only paid workers sub-minimum wage salaries, but
failed to pay for overtime work. In
the wake of the press conference, cynics wondered if either Reich's statistics
of Gifford's star power would bring about change. Indeed, some labor officials
noted that, despite the recent publicity, it would prove difficult for the
nation’s relatively small fleet of inspectors to thoroughly monitor workplace
conditions.

^1996 Wired Ventures files for IPO
Wired Ventures, parent company of Wired magazine and several related Web
sites, filed plans for an initial public offering; however, the company
backed out of the IPO the following August. After a second failed IPO, publishing
company Conde Nast bought Wired magazine from the struggling company in
1998. Despite the struggles of its parent company, Wired had done a great
deal to popularize the digital revolution.

^1988 Reagan-Gorbachev summit
in Moscow ends President
Ronald Reagan ends his first trip to Moscow, and his fourth summit meeting
with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, on notes of both frustration and triumph.
Although there were no breakthroughs or agreements on substantive issues,
the "Great Communicator," as Reagan was known in the United States, was
a hit with Soviet audiences. The May 1988 summit between Gorbachev and Reagan
was billed as a celebratory follow-up to their breakthrough summit of October
1987. At that meeting in Washington, D.C., the two leaders had signed the
groundbreaking Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which eliminated
an entire class of nuclear missiles from Europe. The May meeting, however,
got off to a rocky start as Reagan lectured Gorbachev about the need to
improve the Soviet Union's human rights record. From that inauspicious start,
the summit went downhill and ended with no further progress on arms control.
Gorbachev's frustration boiled over as he declared to Reagan, "Maybe now
is again a time to bang our fists on the table" in order to hammer out an
arms agreement. During his final day in Moscow, Reagan turned away from
strictly political issues and spoke before a group of students and Russian
intellectuals and then took a walking tour of some old churches. He praised
Russian cultural achievements, particularly the nation's great literary
tradition and disarmed his audiences with his usual self-effacing humor.
The May 1988 summit meeting was a victory of style over substance. Both
Reagan and Gorbachev kept up positive fronts in their public statements,
but in fact, the meeting had been a great disappointment for both sides.
No further progress on arms limitation was made, and Reagan's efforts to
push the human rights issue met a frosty response from Gorbachev. The summit
indicated that despite the progress made in improving US-Soviet relations
in the past years, serious differences still existed.

^
1985 Jobs loses job
Despite the great fanfare surrounding
the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984, the computer's sales fell
far below expectations in its first year. Steve Jobs, cofounder of
Apple and champion of the Macintosh, had become general manager of
the Macintosh group. The board of directors, led by Apple's president
John Sculley, blamed Jobs for the Mac's dismal performance. A highly
publicized feud broke out between the two, and on May 31, 1985, Sculley
removed Jobs as head of the Macintosh unit. Although Jobs retained
the title of chairman of the board, he held little real power. Several
months later, Jobs resigned to start a new company, called Next. Ironically,
Macintosh sales took off after Aldus introduced PageMaker in the summer
of 1985, launching an entire industry of desktop publishers, all of
whom relied on Macs to run their software.

1970 Communist
soldiers escape South Vietnamese forces ^top^
About 75 communist soldiers who had seized key outposts in the city
of Dalat, 145 miles northeast of Saigon, manage to slip past 2,500
South Vietnamese militiamen and soldiers who had surrounded their
positions. In earlier fighting, 47 Communist soldiers were reported
killed; South Vietnamese reported that 16 soldiers were killed and
2 were wounded.

^1965 Bombing of
North Vietnam continues
US planes bomb an ammunition depot at Hoi Jan, west of Hanoi, and
try again to drop the Than Hoa highway bridge. These raids were part
of Operation Rolling Thunder, which had begun in March 1965. President
Lyndon B. Johnson had ordered the sustained bombing of North Vietnam
to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern
part of North Vietnam and slow infiltration of personnel and supplies
into South Vietnam. In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to
include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities
as targets. In the spring of 1967, it was further expanded to include
power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area.
The White House closely controlled operation Rolling Thunder and President
Johnson occasionally selected the targets himself. From 1965 to 1968,
about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total
of nearly 900 US aircraft were lost during Operation Rolling Thunder.
The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President
Johnson halted it on 31 October 1968, under increasing domestic political
pressure.

^
1941 Germans conquer Crete
The last of the Allies evacuate after
11 days of battling a successful German parachute invasion of the
island of Crete. Crete is now Axis-occupied territory. On the morning
of May 20, some 3000 members of Germany's Division landed on Crete,
which was patrolled and protected by more than 28'000 Allied troops
and an almost equal number of Greek soldiers. The German invasion,
although anticipated, was not taken seriously; the real fear was of
an attack from the sea. Those initial 3000 parachutists were reinforced-to
the tune of an additional 19'000 men, arriving by parachute drop,
glider, and troop carrier. The Allies remained optimistic; many of
the German soldiers who dropped from the sky died or were injured
on impact. The rest were undersupplied and inexperienced.
But by the May 26, British General Bernard Freyberg, commander of
the defense of Crete, already reported that his position was hopeless.
Evacuation of Allied troops began on the 28th. By the night of the
31st, the last of the Allies that would make it out had left the seaport
of Sphakia; 5000 men would be left behind in the hands of the Germans.
The total loss of Allied land soldiers in the Cretan engagements was
1742; a further 2265 sailors were lost at sea. Three cruisers and
six destroyers had been sunk. The Germans suffered a loss of about
4000 men. Strangely, Hitler, despite the victory, considered his "losses"
too great to pursue further gains in the Mediterranean and finally
drive Great Britain out of the area.

1941
First idea of an electronic computer^top^
John Atanasoff, a University of Iowa
professor who had invented one of the first automatic computers,
writes a letter to his acquaintance, John Mauchly at the University
of Pennsylvania. Atanasoff's letter mentions an idea for an electronic
computer. Mauchly and his associate J. Presper Eckert later spearheaded
the development of ENIAC, the first electronic computer. Later,
a district judge overturned Mauchly and Eckert's patent on the electronic
computer and declared that Atanasoff was the true inventor of the
electronic computer. The patent dispute was one of the most controversial
decisions in the history of computers.

1929 Ford Motor
Company in the USSR ^top^
The Ford Motor Company signed a "Technical
Assistance" contract to produce cars in the Soviet Union. Ford supplied
many of the production parts for car manufacturers in the Soviet Union
during the 1930s. Soviet factories also used Ford plants as their
construction models. The agreement between Ford and the Soviet government
also meant that Ford workers were sent to the Soviet Union to train
the labor force in the use of its parts.
Many laborers, including Walter Reuther, returned form the Soviet
Union with a different view of the duties and privileges of the industrial
laborer. Reuther, the UAW's president for many years, claimed to have
been galvanized by the spirit of the Soviet workforce. It was over
a decade, however, before labor unions won major victories in the
US Although the labor activists were for the most part not Communist,
nor even Communist sympathizers, Ford officials nevertheless used
this threat to keep them at bay for years. During McCarthyism, many
of the labor officials who had been in the Soviet Union were cited
as perpetrators of "un-American activities."

1928 first flight across of the Pacific takes off from
Oakland.

^
1921 Sacco and Vanzetti trial begins.
The trial resulted from two murders in South
Braintree, Massachusetts, on 15 April 1920.The
crime At about 1500 hours
that day, Frederick A. Parmenter, paymaster of a shoe factory, and Alessandro
Berardelli, his guard, were fired upon and killed by two men armed with
pistols. Parmenter and Berardelli were carrying two boxes containing the
payroll of the shoe factory of Slater and Morrill, amounting to $15'773.59
(according to one account) from the company's office building to the factory
through the main street of South Braintree. The two men normally drove the
route accompanied by armed guards, but on this fateful afternoon, they walked
the route unarmed and unaccompanied. As the murders were being committed,
a car containing several other men drove up to the spot. The murderers threw
the two boxes into the car, jumped in, and were driven away. Two days later
the car was found abandoned in woods at a distance from the scene of the
crime. Almost four months earlier, at
0730 on 24 December 1919, the paymaster for the L.Q. White Shoe Company
of Bridgewater Massachusetts, a driver, and a guard had picked up the company's
$30'000 payroll at the Bridgewater Trust Company. The truck was returning
to the factory with the money when three men emerged from a car at an intersection
and opened fire on the payroll truck. The guard returned fire while the
driver swerved around a trolley car and hit a telegraph pole. There were
no injuries, and the bandits escaped, but without the money.The
investigation In both the
Bridgewater and Braintree robberies, eyewitnesses believed the criminals
to be Italians. Chief Michael E. Stewart suspected a Mr. Boda, as he was
an Italian car owner. On 16 April 1920, Stewart, at the instance of the
Department of Justice, was engaged in rounding up Communists, and had been
to the house of Mr. Coacci to see why he had failed to appear at a hearing
regarding his deportation. He found Coacci packing a trunk and apparently
seeming very anxious to leave. At that time, Coacci and the robberies were
not connected in Chief Stewart's mind. But, when the tracks of a different
car were found near the murderers' car, he surmised that this car was Boda's;
and that Coacci, Boda's pal, had assisted him. In the meantime, Chief Stewart
continued to work on his theory that whoever called for Boda's car at the
garage where it was being repaired would be a suspect in the Braintree crime.
On the night of 05 May, Boda and three other Italians did in fact come for
the car. The Italians were Nicola
Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Boda, and Orciani. The car was not available
and the Italians left, but the police were notified. Sacco and Vanzetti
were arrested on a street car, Boda escaped, and Orciani was arrested the
next day. Chief Stewart sought to show
that both robberies were committed by one gang. However, the theory proved
to be implausible. Orciani had been at work on the days of both crimes,
so he was released. Sacco, employed at a shoe factory in Stoughton, had
taken a day off, 15 April. Consequently, while he could not be charged with
the Bridgewater crime, he was charged with the Braintree murder. Vanzetti,
as a self-employed fish peddler in Plymouth, could not give the same kind
of alibi for either day and so he was held for both crimes. Stewart's theory
that the crime was committed by these Italian radicals was not shared by
the head of the state police, who firmly maintained that it was the work
of professionals.The trial
Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested on 05 May 1920, and indicted on 14
September 1920. On 31 May 1921, they
are brought to trial before Judge Webster Thayer of the Massachusetts Superior
Court. Part of the jury was specially selected by the sheriff's deputies.
The chief counsel for the Italians, Fred H. Moore, was a radical and a professional
defender of radicals, greatlly disliked by the judge. Sacco and Vanzetti
spoke very broken English and their testimony shows how often they misunderstood
the questions put to them. In fact, an interpreter had to be used, and his
conduct raised such doubts that the defendants brought their own interpreter
to check his questions and answers. The trial lasted nearly seven weeks,
and on 14 July 1921, the jury found Sacco and Vanzetti guilty of murder
in the first degree.The controversy
Socialists and radicals protested the men's
innocence. Many people felt that there had been less than a fair trial and
that the defendants had been convicted out of prejudice against Italian
immigrants and, above all, for their radical, anarchist beliefs rather than
for the crime for which they had been tried. All attempts for retrial on
the ground of false identification failed. On 18 November 1925, one
Celestino Madeiros, then under a sentence for murder, confessed that he
had participated in the crime with the Joe Morelli gang. On
this basis, the defense attempted to reopen the case in 1926. But the state
Supreme Court refused to upset the verdict, because at that time the trial
judge had the final power to reopen on the ground of additional evidence.
The two men were sentenced to death on 09 April 1927.
A storm of protest arose with mass meetings throughout the nation. Governor
Alvan T. Fuller appointed an independent advisory committee consisting of
President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, President Samuel W.
Stratton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Robert Grant,
a former judge. On 03 August 1927, the governor refused to exercise
his power of clemency; his advisory committee agreed with this stand. Demonstrations
proceeded in many cities throughout the world, and bombs were set off in
New York City and Philadelphia. Sacco and Vanzetti, still maintaining their
innocence, were executed 23 August 1927. Upton Sinclair's novel Boston
and Maxwell Anderson's play Winterset were written in response
to the trial and execution. Opinion
has remained divided on whether Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty as charged
or whether they were innocent victims of a prejudiced legal system and a
mishandled trial. Some writers have claimed that Sacco was guilty but that
Vanzetti was innocent. There is widespread agreement, however, that the
two men should have been granted a second trial in view of their trial's
significant defects. In 1977 the governor of Massachusetts, Michael S. Dukakis,
issued a proclamation stating that Sacco and Vanzetti had not been treated
justly and that no stigma should be associated with their names.

1919 NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes first
crossing of Atlantic 1916 During WW I British and
German fleets fight Battle of Jutland 1915 An LZ-38
Zeppelin makes an air raid on London 1913 The 17th
amendment to the US Constitution (direct election of senators) declared
ratified 1910 The Union of South Africa is founded
including the Cape of Good Hope colony.1909 first
NAACP conference (United Charities Building, NYC)

^1862 Battle of
Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Virginia
Confederate forces strike Union troops in the Pen insular campaign.
During May 1862, the Army of the Potomac, under the command of George
B. McClellan, slowly advanced up the James Peninsula after sailing
down the Chesapeake Bay by boat. Confederate commander Joseph Johnston
had been cautiously backing his troops up the peninsula in the face
of the larger Union force, giving ground until he was in the Richmond
perimeter. When the Rebels had backed up to the capital, Johnston
sought an opportunity to attack McClellan and halt his advance. That
chance came when McClellan's forces were straddling the Chickahominy
River. The swampy ground around the river was difficult to maneuver,
and the river was now a raging torrent from the spring rains.
A major storm on May 31 threatened
to cut the only bridge links between the two wings of the Union army.
Johnston attacked one of McClellan's corps south of the river on May
31 in a promising assault. The plan called for three divisions to
hammer the Federal corps from three sides, but the inexperienced Confederates
were delayed and confused. By the time the attack came, McClellan
had time to muster reinforcements and drive the Rebels back. A Confederate
attack the next day also produced no tangible results. The Yankees
lost 5000 casualties to the Rebels' 6000. But the battle had two important
consequences. McClellan was horrified by the sight of his dead and
wounded soldiers, and became much more cautious and timid in battle—actions
that would eventually doom the campaign. And since Johnston was wounded
during the battle's first day, Robert E. Lee replaced him. Lee had
been serving as Confederate President Jefferson Davis' military advisor
since his undistinguished service in western Virginia during the war's
first year. The history of the war in the eastern theater drastically
changed as Lee ascended the ranks. His leadership and exploits soon
became legend.

1790 US copyright law enacted1713
Tratado de Utrecht, que pone fin a la Guerra de Sucesión española y por
el que Felipe V de Borbón es reconocido Rey de España y ésta pierde sus
posesiones en Italia y Holanda.1678 Tax protester
Lady Godiva rides naked through Coventry1638 Colonial
clergyman Thomas Hooker, 51, first arrived at the site of New Haven, CT,
having migrated there with his church members who repudiated the autocratic
rule of Puritanism in Boston. Hooker (the founder of Connecticut) believed
Boston had become corrupt, and that church authority should rest in the
people's consent.1578 Italian archaeologist Antonio
Bosio became the first man in modern times to rediscover the Christian catacombs
in Rome. Researchers (e.g., Giovanni B. de Rossi) who followed him dubbed
Bosio "the Columbus of the Catacombs."1492 Los Reyes
Católicos firman el decreto de expulsión de los judíos de todos sus reinos,
en el plazo de cuatro meses.

2009 George Richard Tiller
“the
Killer” [08 Aug 1941–], US full-time abortionist physician,
shot
byScott
P. Roeder [25 Feb 1958~], an anti-abortion (but obviously not pro-life)
activist. Tiller was the son of part-time abortionist physician Dean Jackson
"Jack" Tiller [1916 – 21 Aug 1970]. George
Tiller operated his Women's Health Care Services, one of the three US
clinics which performed late-term
abortions. In June 1986, the clinic was fire-bombed. For many years
the pro-life Operation Rescue kept a daily peaceful vigil outside Tiller's
clinic. On 19 August 1993, Rachelle
Ranae “Shelley” Shannon [31 Mar 1956~] unsuccesfully
attempted to murder Tiller, shooting him five times. The Catholic Church
teaches that human life must be respected and protected absolutely from
the moment of conception (CCC
2270) and that the cases in which the death penalty is justified, even
when applied by the legitimate authority to the worst criminals, are nowadays
“very rare, if not practically non-existent” (John Paul II,
Evangelium
vitae #56). — A
pro~life revulsion at the murder —(100130)2004 Two
persons as there is shooting at blood donors at the Hussaini Blood
Bank in Soldier Bazaar, in Karachi, who were responding to an appeal on
behalf of the victims of the explosion at the Imambargah Ali Raza two hours
earlier.2004 At least 18 persons by terrorist bomb
in the Imambargah (Shia mosque) Ali Raza about 100 m from Numaish intersection
on MA Jinnah Road in Karachi, Pakistan, during Maghrib (sunset) prayers.
More than 35 persons are injured. Soon afterwards Shia mobs riot in the
streets impeding rescue and investigation.2003 Tadanosuke Hashimoto,
Japanese man born on 27 April 1891.2002 Three Afghan soldiers,
killed by mistake by US Special Forces troops. Two
other Afghan soldiers are wounded. According to the US military, a variety
of intelligence sources had indicated that a group of Taliban and
Qaeda leaders were planning to meet in the evening at a walled compound
in Khomar Kalay village, near Gardez in the mountainous region bordering
on Pakistan. Before dawn today, about 20 American Special Forces soldiers,
accompanied by about 80 Afghan soldiers from the Gardez area, drive up to
the compound in trucks and sport utility vehicles. Their plan was to surround
the compound and apprehend the suspects as they departed. But as the vehicles
approached, men started running from the compound carrying weapons, including
AK-47 rifles and at least one rocket-propelled grenade launcher. One group
of those armed men took what the US soldiers thought were flanking
positions behind a wall, then appeared to aim a grenade launcher
at the US convoy. At that point, the US commander ordered his men to open
fire. The shooting was over within minutes, without any of the attackers
being hurt. Seventeen others inside the compound laid down their weapons.
The Afghan victims were loyal to the interim government of Hamid Karzai,
recognized by the US, and appeared to have come from nearby Logar Province.2001 Ahmed Salah Abu el-Hilu, 17, Palestinian, in a clash
with Israeli forces near Ramallah.2001 Zvi Shelef,
63, of massive head wounds after being shot at on a northern West Bank road
near Baka a-Sharkia, north of Tul Karm, and close to the Green Line.. He
was a resident of the Jewish enclave settlement. Mevo Dotan.1996
The four Saudi men accused of the 13 November 1995 bombing of the
Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh are beheaded in Riyadh's
main square. Before their execution, they are coerced by the Saudi's into
a public confession. In the confession, they claim to have read bin Laden
communiqués.

^1996Timothy
Francis Leary, with the last words: Why
not? Why not? Why not?. Born
on 22 October 1920, Leary was a clinical psychologist at Harvard University,
a dabbler in Eastern mysticism, a fugitive and convict, a stand-up
comedian and actor, a writer and a software designer and an exponent
of cybernetics. Most of all, he was a publicist for psychedelic experience,
repeating turn on, tune in, drop out to advertise the
wonders of LSD. Some of his books: High Priest (1968), Politics
of Ecstasy (1968), an autobiography Flashback (1983),
Chaos and Cyberculture (1994). Leary,
the son of a US Army officer, was raised in a Catholic household and
attended Holy Cross College, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,
and the University of Alabama (B.A., 1943). In 1950 he received a
doctorate in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley,
where he was an assistant professor until 1955. During the 1950s Leary
developed an egalitarian model for interaction between the psychotherapist
and the patient, promoted new techniques of group therapy, and published
a system for classifying interpersonal behavior. He acquired a reputation
as a promising young scholar and was appointed to the position of
lecturer at Harvard University in 1959.
At Harvard, Leary began experimenting with psilocybin, a synthesized
form of the hallucinogenic agent found in certain mushrooms. He concluded
that psychedelic drugs could be effective in transforming personality
and expanding human consciousness. Along with a colleague, he formed
the Harvard Psychedelic Drug Research Program and began administering
psilocybin to graduate students; he also shared the drug with several
prominent artists, writers, and musicians. Leary explored the cultural
and philosophical implications of psychedelic drugs; in contrast to
those within the psychedelic research community who argued that the
drugs should be used only by a small elite, Leary came to believe
that the experience should be introduced to the general public, particularly
to young people. Leary's experiments
were highly controversial, and he was dismissed from Harvard in 1963
after colleagues protested. During the mid-1960s Leary lived in a
mansion in Millbrook, New York, where he formed the center of a small
hedonistic community and began to intensively explore LSD, a more
powerful psychedelic drug. His research, which initially had emphasized
careful control over the “set and setting” of the psychedelic experience,
became increasingly undisciplined and unstructured. He traveled widely
and gave many public lectures, especially on college campuses, and
because of his high public profile, he became a focus of the emerging
public debate over LSD. His phrase “turn on, tune in, drop out” became
a popular counterculture slogan. Cultural conservatives saw Leary
as a corrosive influence on society, President Richard Nixon called
him “the most dangerous man in America” (though Nixon was), while
many researchers felt that Leary delegitimized the serious study of
psychedelic drugs. After arrests
in 1965 and 1968 for possession of marijuana and a prolonged legal
battle, Leary was incarcerated in 1970. He soon escaped and became
a fugitive, living outside the United States for more than two years
until being recaptured in Afghanistan (a country that had enough troubles
without him). He was freed in 1976 and settled in southern California.
During the 1980s and '90s Leary continued to appear publicly in lectures
and debates, although he never regained the stature he had enjoyed
during the 1960s. He also designed computer software and was an early
advocate of the potential of new technologies such as virtual reality
and the Internet.

^1962 Adolf Eichmann,
56, hanged. At Ramie Prison near
Tel Aviv, Israel, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi S.S. colonel who organized
Adolf Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish question," is executed
for his crimes against humanity.
During World War II, Eichmann, a fanatical Nazi, was appointed head
of the Gestapo's Jewish section by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and,
with horrifying efficiency, carried out the Fuehrer's orders. From
1942 to 1945, Eichmann oversaw the systematic abuse of Jews in German-occupied
territories, organized their subsequent mass deportation to concentration
camps, and then carried out Hitler's "final solution to the Jewish
question"  the genocidal murder of millions of Jews, primarily
in the gas chambers of the concentration camps.
In 1945, Eichmann was captured by US forces and imprisoned, but he
managed to escape before having to face the Nuremberg international
war crimes tribunal. Eichmann traveled under an assumed identity,
and in 1950 arrived in Argentina, which maintained lax immigration
policies and was a safe haven for many accused war criminals.
After over a decade of pursuit, Israeli
agents located Eichmann living under a false name in Argentina, and
on May 23, 1960, kidnapped him near Buenos Aires. The agents circumvented
extradition procedures and transported him to Israel, where he was
judged by a special war crimes tribunal in two successive trials.
Known as the "human symbol" of the
genocide of the Jewish people, on 15 December 1961 Eichmann was condemned
to death for the abuse and murder of millions of Jews. On 31 May 1962,
he was hanged. His body was subsequently cremated and his ashes thrown
into the sea.

1961 Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina,
69, assassinated,. dictator from 1930 when he seized power in the military
revolt against President Horacio Vásquez in 1930. From that time until his
assassination, Trujillo remained in absolute control of the Dominican Republic
through his command of the army, by placing family members in office, and
by having many of his political opponents murdered. He served officially
as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952.1949
Fernando de los Ríos Urruti, político español.1944
Henri Laplanche, Jean Perquis, Hippolyte Thomas, Charles Maillard, one more,
Jean-Baptiste Brault, René Fayon, and Louis Hesry, leader of the
French FTP (Francs Tireurs et Partisans) Résistance group to which
Brault and Fayon belonged, by German firing squad, at la Maltière, Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande,
for the 12 April 1944 assault on the Dinan prison (whose French guards,
including accomplice policeman Maillard, did not resist) which freed the
Résistance lieutenants Jean Marguerite and Jean Guérillon. Some had
been tortured, starting with Maillard, who revealed the names of the others.1944 Hubert Jean Marie Viannay [12 Jan 1921–], at
the Oranienburg death camp to which the Nazis had deported him from France,
where he was born at Saint-Jean-de-Bournay (Isère).1944 Henry
Weinbach [18 Dec 1876–], at the Birkenau death camp to which
the Nazis had deported him from France, where he was born in Paris (16e
arrondissement). 1935 Quake kills 50'000 in Quetta
Pakistan  Un terremoto destruye la ciudad de Quetta (Pakistán) y mueren
más de 56'000 personas.1931 Eugène
Maurice Pierre Cosserat, French astronomer and mathematician
born on 04 March 1866. He studied the deformation of surfaces, which led
him to a theory of elasticity.1916 Egisto Lanceretto,
Italian artist born on 21 August 1848.1910 Elizabeth Blackwell,
89, first woman physician1907 Francesco
Siacci, Italian major general and mathematician born on 20
April 1839.1906 Treinta personas, por una bomba
arrojada en la calle Mayor de Madrid contra la comitiva de la boda del Rey
Alfonso XIII con la princesa Victoria Eugenia de Battenberg. Los Reyes resultan
ilesos.

^1889: 2209 victims of
the Johnstown Flood
In a river valley on the Appalachian Plateau, a neglected dam and
a phenomenal storm led to a catastrophe in which over 2200 people
died, tens of thousands were left homeless, and a prospering city,
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was nearly wiped off the face of the earth.
Johnstown was located on the Conemaugh River at the mouth of Stony
Creek, and was 23 km downstream from Lake Conemaugh, a recreational
lake of the prestigious South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. Lake
Conemaugh was held back by the South Fork Dam, which was owned and
maintained by the sporting club.
By 1889, the dam was in need of repairs, and when particularly severe
torrential rains struck the area in late May, the president of the
club sent telegraphs to Johnstown and other nearby towns warning that
the dam might soon break. However, flooding was a familiar occurrence
in the valley, and most Johnstown residents took no more precaution
than casually moved their belongings to the second story of their
homes. On 31 May, engineers at
the dam realized its collapse was imminent, and they sent riders down
the valley to evacuate area residents. Few heeded the warning. Just
after three o’clock in the afternoon the South Fork Dam collapsed,
and twenty million tons of water went roaring down the valley toward
Johnstown. The flood swept through the communities of South Fork,
Mineral Point, Woodvale, and East Conemaugh, accumulating debris,
which included trees, houses, barns, animals, and people, both dead
and alive. By the time it reached Johnstown, the flood appeared as
a rolling hill of debris about thirty feet high and nearly half-a-mile
wide. With one great swoop, over one thousand Johnstown buildings
were demolished and sent tumbling down the roaring torrent. Over two
thousand people were killed or drowned within minutes, and many bodies
were washed several miles down the valley. Among the survivors of
the calamity, there was a scarcely an individual who had not lost
a friend or relative in the Johnstown Flood. Despite the great scope
of the tragedy, reconstruction of the devastated community began almost
immediately, and the American Red Cross arrived to construct shelters
for homeless residents while tons of relief supplies arrived from
well-wishers around the country.
In a river valley in central Pennsylvania, heavy rain and a neglected
dam lead to a catastrophe in which 2209 people die and a prosperous
city, Johnstown, is nearly wiped off the face of the earth. Johnstown,
located at the confluence of the Little Conemaugh River and Stony
Creek, was 14 miles downstream from Lake Conemaugh, a reservoir turned
recreational lake that was owned and maintained by the prestigious
South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. The sporting club, which catered
to a wealthy clientele from nearby Pittsburgh, included Andrew Carnegie
and Henry Clay Frick on its membership rolls. Lake Conemaugh was held
back by the South Fork Dam, a large earth-fill dam that was completed
by the club in 1881. By 1889,
the dam was in dire need of repairs. When several days of heavy rain
struck the area in late May 1889, club officials struggled to reinforce
the neglected dam, which was under tremendous pressure from the swollen
waters of Lake Conemaugh. The dam began to disintegrate, and on 31
May the lake's water level passed over the top of the dam. Realizing
that the dam's collapse was imminent, club officials sent riders down
the valley to evacuate area residents. However, flooding was a familiar
occurrence in the valley, and few Johnstown residents heeded the riders'
desperate warnings. Most just took the same simple precautions they
did when Little Conemaugh River flooded: They moved their belongings
to the second story of their homes and settled down to wait out the
storm. At 15:10, the South Fork
Dam washed away, drowning several laborers who were struggling to
maintain it. Club officials on high ground watched awe-struck as 20
million tons of water went roaring down the valley toward Johnstown.
The deluge swept through the communities of South Fork, Mineral Point,
Woodvale, and East Conemaugh, accumulating debris, including rocks,
trees, houses, barns, railroad cars, animals, and people, both dead
and alive. By the time it reached Johnstown, at 16:07, the flood appeared
as a rolling hill of debris more than 10 meters high and some 700
meters wide. In a terrible swoop, the northern half of the city was
swept away, sending some 1500 demolished Johnstown buildings tumbling
down with the roaring torrent.
It took 10 minutes for the waters of Lake Conemaugh to pass through
Johnstown, and 2000 people were drowned or crushed in the torrent.
A few survivors were washed up along with numerous corpses several
miles down the valley. At the old Stone Bridge in Johnstown, debris
piled 40 feet high caught fire, and some 80 huddled survivors of the
flood perished in the flames.
A total of 2209 died as a result of the disaster. Among the survivors
of the calamity, there was a scarcely an individual who had not lost
a friend or relative in the Johnstown Flood. Despite the great scale
of the tragedy, reconstruction of the devastated community began almost
immediately, and Clara Barton and the American Red Cross constructed
shelters for homeless residents while well-wishers around the country
sent tons of relief supplies. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club
was widely criticized for its failure to maintain the South Fork Dam,
but no successful lawsuits were ever brought against the organization.

1841 George
Green, English mathematician born in July 1793.1837
Nicolas André Monsiau, French painter and illustrator born
in 1754. MORE
ON MONSIAU AT ART 4 MAYwith
links to images.1832 Évariste
Galois, from wounds suffered the previous day in a duel with
Perscheux d'Herbinville. Galois was a French mathematician born on 25 October
1811. Galois produced a method of determining when a general equation could
be solved by radicals, and in the process outlined the group theory now
called Galois theory (but probably not all in the night before the duel). 1809 Franz Josef Haydn composer, in Wien (Vienna) Austria

1774 Claude-François Desportes, French artist born
in 1695. 1740 Frederick-William I king of Prussia
(1713-1740)1594
Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto il Furioso, great
Venetian Mannerist painter born in 1518. MORE
ON TINTORETTO AT ART 4 MAYwith links to images.

 90'000'000 BC
(approximately, they didn't have calendars back then, but they
had cameras >): Paralititan Stromeri, of unknown
causes [it overdosed on an ancient psychodelic mushroom, according to one
theory, which I have just concocted out of thin air], in a swamp that would
become Egypt's Bahariya Oasis Its carcass is devoured by carnivorous dinosaurs
and some of its bones remain there while the region changes to desert and
on 31 May 2001 it
is announced that they have been discovered in 2000 by University of
Pennsylvania graduate student Joshua B. Smith, who gives the species its
name meaning paralytic titan [just kidding...it really means
tidal giant] and estimates that it weighed 70 tons and was nearly
30 meters long. Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach was a German geologist who,
in 1935, uncovered a wealth of Late Cretinaceous ... er... make that Cretaceous
fossils at the site, including four entirely new dinosaur species, but the
fossils were destroyed during an Allied bombing of Munich during World War
II [which suggests a new theory on the disapperance of the dinosaurs: they
were bombed out of existence by cretinous creatures that eventually evolved
into Osama Bin Laden].http://www.dinosaur.org/http://dinosauria.com/

1926 John
G. Kemeny, Jewish-Hungarian-born US mathematician and philosopher
who died on 26 December 1992. Co-inventor, with Thomas Eugene Kurtz [1928~],
of the BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) computer
language, whose first program was run at 02:00 on 04 May 1964 at Dartmouth
College. 1923 Rainier-Louis-Henri-Maxence-Bertrand
de Grimaldi, who, at the death of his grandfather Louis
II [12 Jul 1870 – 09 May 1949], would become Rainier III,
Prince de Monaco, Duc de Valentinois, Marquis des Baux, Comte de Carlades,
Baron de Buis, Seigneur de Saint-Rémy, Sire de Matignon, Comte de Thorigny,
Baron de Saint-Lô, de la Luthumière et de Hambye, Duc d'Estouteville, de
Mazarin et de Mayenne, Prince de Château-Porcien, Comte de Ferrette, de
Belfort, de Thann et de Rosemont, Baron d'Altkirch, Seigneur d'Isenheim,
Marquis de Chilly, Comte de Longjumeau, Baron de Massy, Marquis de Guiscard;
the 31st hereditary ruler of the principality of Monaco {no relation to
Mount Rainier, which George Vancouver sighted on 08 May 1792 and named
for fellow navigator Peter Rainier}. Rainier III was responsible for Monaco's
1962 constitution, which ended autocratic rule by creating a National Council
of eighteen elected members. On 19 April 1956, Rainier III married US actress
Grace
Kelly [12 Nov 1929 – 14 Sep 1982]. Rainier III's successor is
their son Albert-Alexandre-Louis-Pierre Grimaldi [14 Mar 1958~]. Rainier
died on 11 April 2005, according to a forecast.1912 Henry
'Scoop' Jackson (US Senator from Washington)1911
Maurice Allais, economista e ingeniero de Minas francés, P. Nobel
de Economía en 1988.1910 Luis Rosales, poeta español.

^1904 Friction drive
for cars. Byron
J. Carter receives a US patent for his "friction-drive" mechanism.
The friction-drive replaces the conventional transmission to provide
more precise control of a car's speed. A newspaper at the time of
the device's release explained that the friction-drive mechanism "used
friction discs, instead of gears, so arranged as to be instantly changed
to any desired speed. The discs also change to forward or backward
movement, and can be used as a brake to stop the machine by reversing
the lever." Carter's friction
drive never really caught on, however. Conventional transmissions
served their purpose adequately, and the friction discs proved to
be susceptible to poor road conditions. Carter's ingenious design
did, however, attract the attention of William Durant, General Motor's
megalomaniac expansionist leader. He bought the Cartercar design thinking
it might turn into something big; it never did. The technology involved
in the friction-drive is, however, related to today's disc brakes.

1898 Norman Vincent Peale Ohio, (clergyman: radio ministry;
author and syndicated newspaper column: The Power of Positive Thinking)1892 Michel Kikoïne, Belarus-born French painter who
died on 04 November 1968. MORE
ON KIKOÏNE AT ART 4 MAYwith
links to images. 1885 Alois
“Luigi” Hudal, [–13 May 1963], Austrian who
would be ordained a Catholic priest on 19 July 1908, become rector of the
Collegio Teutonico Anima in Rome in 1923 and a consultant to the Holy Office
in 1930, be consecrated a bishop on 18 June 1933 by the future (02 Mar 1939)
Pope Pius XII [02 Mar 1876 – 09 Oct 1958], sympathize in part with
the Nazis, arrange the “humanitarian” escape
of Nazi war criminals, and resign a rector in June 1952. —(080630)

^1870 Sheet asphalt
Professor Edward Joseph De Smedt of
the American Asphalt Pavement Company, New York City, receives two
patents for his invention known as "French asphalt pavement." De Smedt
had invented the first practical version of sheet asphalt. On July
29 of the same year, the first road pavement of sheet asphalt was
laid on William Street in Newark, New Jersey.

1860 Archibald Thorburn, British bird painter who died
on 09 October 1935. MORE
ON THORBURN AT ART 4 OCTOBERwith links to images.1862 Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov,
Russian painter who died on 18 October 1942. MORE
ON NESTEROV AT ART 4 OCTOBERwith links to images.1860 Walter Richard Sickert,
British British Post-Impressionist Camden
Town Group painter, printmaker, teacher, and writer of German birth,
who died on 22 January 1942. MORE
ON SICKERT AT ART 4 MAYwith
links to images.1857 Pius
XI 259th pope (1922-1939)1853 Eugène-Alexis
Girardet, French artist who died on 05 May 1907. — links
to images.1845 Juana Josefa “Cándida
María de Jesús” Cipitria y Barriola [–09 Aug 1912], Catholic saint
canonized on 17 October. (more to come) —(100220)1827
Nicolaas Riegen, Dutch artist who died on 27 November 1889.1821 Henriette Ronner-Knip, Dutch artist who died on 02
March 1909.

^1819Walter
Whitman, US poet, journalist, and essayist, in
West Hills, Long Island. Walt
Whitman was raised in Brooklyn. Although Whitman loved music and books,
he left school at the age of 14 to become a journeyman printer. Later,
he worked as a teacher, journalist, editor, carpenter, and held various
other jobs to support his writing.
In 1855, he self-published a slim volume of poems called Leaves
of Grass, which carried his picture but not his name. With this
book, Whitman hoped to become a truly American poet, as envisioned
in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "The Poet" (1843). Whitman
spent much time in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island, attending
cultural events, taking long walks, and sometimes riding on coaches
and ferries as an excuse to talk with people.
In 1856, the second edition of Leaves of Grass included his
"Sundown Poem," later called "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry."
In 1862, Whitman's brother was wounded at Fredericksburg, and Whitman
went to care for him. He spent the rest of the war comforting both
Union and Confederate soldiers. Some of Whitman's poems were inspired
by his Civil War experience as a hospital volunteer in Washington.
Although a staunch supporter of the Union cause, Whitman comforted
dying soldiers of both sides, as described in one of the poet's wartime
newspaper dispatches: "I stayed a long time by the bedside of a new
patient.... In an adjoining ward I found his brother...It was in the
same battle both were hit. One was a strong Unionist, the other Secesh;
both fought for their respective sides, both badly wounded, and both
brought together after a separation of four years. Each died for his
cause." His poem "Oh Captain,
My Captain," mourned Lincoln's assassination. Whitman worked
for several government departments after the war until he suffered
a stroke in 1873. He spent the rest of his life in Camden, New Jersey,
and continued to issue revised editions of Leaves
of Grass until shortly before his death on 26 March 1892
(other poetry: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, Passage
to India) — 1887 Portrait
of Whitman by Thomas
Eakins.
WHITMAN ONLINE: Leaves
of Grass

1809 Frederik Hansen Södring, Danish artist who died
on 18 April 1862.1760 George Garrard, British artist
who died on 08 October 1826. MORE
ON GARRARD AT ART 4 OCTOBERwith
links to images. 1733 Ludwig Tieck, escritor alemán.1684 Georg Engelhardt Schröder, German artist who
died on 17 May 1750.1622 Jan Abrahamszoon Beerstraten,
Flemish landscape painter and printmaker who died on 01 July 1666. MORE
ON BEERSTRATEN AT ART 4 MAYwith
links to images.1535 Alessandro Bronzino Allori,
Italian painter who died on 22 September 1607. MORE
ON ALLORI AT ART 4 MAY with
links to images. 1469 Manuel I “o Afortunado”,
king of Portugal from October 1495, who died in December 1521. His reign
was characterized by religious troubles (all Moors and Jews refusing baptism
were expelled), by a policy of clever neutrality in the face of quarrels
between France and Spain, and by the continuation of overseas expansion,
notably to India and Brazil.

Thought for the day:Just say know.  Timothy Leary
[22 Oct 1920 – 31 May 1996] To criticize the incompetent is easy; it is more difficult
to criticize the competent."  {So is it because I am competent
that I am incompetent to criticize myself?}"For the incompetent to criticize is easy; it is more difficult
for the competent.""To criticize incompetently is easy; it is more difficult to
criticize competently.""To criticize the incompetent is safe; it is more dangerous
to criticize the competitive.""To criticize ineffectually is easy; it is more difficult to
give advice that is followed.
Always complete your work on time, no matter how long it takes or how late
you started.
Alwezcmpleturwokontimnomatrhwmuchuhav2strimlinit.
I you cannot complete your work on time, don't start it; instead criticize
the incompetents around you.
No matter how long you work on time, you can't reverse it.